All of which is to say: there is life outside the box. And if we’re going to replicate Eric’s famous pentatonic cascade, now would be a good time to experience it.
The fifth position is notable as perhaps the one pentatonic position other than the standard box position that casual players might be familiar with. It is constructed of adjacent pairs of fretboard shapes, so it’s easy to visualize and remember. And it shares its upper notes with the box position. So it’s a convenient occasional detour for box position phrases that need to stretch their legs. In cascade phrases, the fifth position is the very first step outside the box, and it plays this critical role — especially on the middle two strings — in nearly every descending phrase Eric plays.
Position IV’s fingering shapes on the A, D, and G strings are actually the same ones found on the lowest strings of the traditional box position, just shifted over one set of strings. Like the box position, this coincides with the power chord shape in the same spot. So it’s sort of a “home away from home” for familiar box fingerings, right in the most heavily trafficked chording section of the neck. These box-like fingerings are also the direct connection to the ring-finger pentatonic root in position III. This makes the middle strings of position IV a kind of Panama Canal to the destination. Almost all cascade phrases pass directly through here.
Position III shares a comfortable mid-neck location with position IV:
Residing in the comfortable middle frets of the neck, Position III is perhaps the most important cascade destination among the five positions. The minor pentatonic root is found here, and it’s played with a ring finger fretting that makes it convenient for bending and vibrato. It is this single note that is very often the express target of phases arriving from the upper positions.
Position II of the pentatonic scale is of course important because of its physical connection to the box. In E, it’s the last stop before the open string, and it’s called upon as part of every full-fretboard cascade in that key. But it turns out to be even more critical in Eric’s vocabulary for an entirely different, and highly specific reason: it’s the one pentatonic position where many of his ascending lines happen, and we’ll see how this is done later on.
The 3-1 cascade finishes by way of ingredients we’ve now seen several times: a three-finger legato shift to the box position, a sequence of fives, and the familiar sextuplet sequence — with root note cap, of course — to finish it off.
But this isn’t Eric’s most famous 3-1 cascading phrase. That honor of course goes to the one that powers the intro to his breakout hit, Cliffs of Dover:
Like the 3-1 that we just examined, this is really two licks in one. The first half is a self-contained box position phrase at the twelfth fret that kicks off with the famous thunderous open E:
He follows the open string with the world’s juciest 15th fret bend, as well as a few melodic devices we’ve already seen: the top-string melodic sequence from the pickups, the three-note stretch on the second string that powers the legato turnaround, and some more juicy bends.
From there, the action moves down to the third position of the pentatonic scale, skipping the fifth and fourth positions entirely. The 3-1 cascade then begins with the chromatic version of the third position motif, which ends just as we’ve come to expect, with the V-I anchor notes. But rather than pause for dramatic effect, this time the lick keeps moving — and picking up speed as it goes. In fact, the anchor notes themselves become the connection between the third position and the second.
But how exactly this happens is up for debate. Whether the middle finger — the final anchor note — actually slides down the B string to the third fret, or whether the index finger simply steps in behind it, is unclear. Sliding would of course be the more Johnson-esque solution, and there is indeed a tiny change in articulation on the recording that could support a slide to the third fret:
There are also several other examples on the Austin City Limits performance which support sliding away from the “motif” on the B string, albeit not at this kind of speed. So let’s call it… inconclusive!
Regardless, once at the second position, the home stretch is fairly straightforward: two sequences of five and one sequence of four cycle the pattern down to the D string. Then the nearly universal box- position sextuplet chunk drives the phrase to its finish on the open E string. Here’s what the whole sequence looks like fretted rather than sliding:
By themselves, the components of long, sophisticated phrases like this are relatively straightforward to execute. The picking patterns are already designed to be fast and efficient. And guitar fingerings don’t get much simpler than two pentatonic notes on a string. But burning these building blocks into long-term memory, so they can be linked like this on the fly, will take time. The broad similarity of most of Eric’s descending playing is the hint: these lines are simply not that different from one another. And many contain entire chains of identical phrases. What this means is that, while these lines appear spontaneous, it’s a bit of an illusion. The linking is, for the most part, memorized — burned in by rote as a result of years of repetition. This is how habits are formed, and how styles are built. Simply incorporating these fundamental patterns into everyday playing and composition, with no particular emphasis on speed, and no particular deadline for mastery, is how that burn-in happens.